Creation of a Fintech City to Push Fintech in Philippines

The plan to create a “fintech city” in the Philippines will be pushing through as rules and regulations have been issued by the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), a government-owned and-controlled corporation tasked to manage and supervise the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Free Port (CSEZFP) development.

The upcoming hub will be built within the CSEZFP that will house a fintech startup incubator, cryptocurrency mining farm, cryptocurrency exchange, and a blockchain center.

CEZA’s regulations will also include licensing of ICO projects. About 15 parties engaged in virtual currency, and blockchain, are likely to operate within the first Philippine fintech hub.

Among CEZA’s main rules, are:

Licensee’s will have to commit to invest US$1 million over a period of two years

Physically locate some level of their core operations in the zone

Have safisfactory KYC and AML practises in place

Will be placed in a sandbox managed by CEZA and observed by the Central Bank of Philippines

Will only be allowed to offer their services to customers located out of the Philippine

Expected to generate employment in exchange for the tax breaks they will receive

“Our new focus is aimed at fintech in general and not just the crypto world. We want to become an innovation hub,”

Located in Cagayan Province, northern Luzon, CSEZFP is envisioned to be a self-sustaining industrial, commercial, financial, tourism and recreational centre.

Garcia said the Cagayan Economic Zone as a port city is occupied by BPOs, and casinos which was the initial focus of CEZA. It recently opened the Cagayan North International Airport (also called Lal-lo International Airport).

More Information abouth the Cacayan Special Economic Zone and Fintech Solutions can be found here.

About Author

Tom Noda is covering the Philippines Fintech market for Fintechnews. He is a former correspondent of DealStreetAsia, Newsbytes.ph, Computerworld Philippines, and social media strategist of Philstar.com.